Date: Thu, 11 Jan 1996 18:15:43 +0200 (IST)
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il>
To: Robert Lawrence <lawrence AT OCF DOT Berkeley DOT EDU>
Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: Unable to link a large program using DJGPP


On 10 Jan 1996, Robert Lawrence wrote:

> I am having a problem linking a large program which uses the curses
> library.  When my compilation gets to the final linking stage, it
> gives the following error message:
> libcurse.a: could not read symbols: Memory exhausted
> and halts.  I have searched through the files in the `docs' directory,
> read the FAQ, and read all of the postings on this newsgroup.  I am

First, check how much memory does go32 see as available to DJGPP 
programs.  To this end, invoke go32 with no arguments.  If it prints that 
available physical memory + swapspace are more than, say, the program 
size plus a few MBytes, then this is not a real memory problem, but a bug 
in ld, which was reported before.  I searched the DJGPP mail archives for 
a combination of ``symbols'' and ``exhausted'' and came up with a 
description of a very similar problem which you can read at this URL:

  http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/mail-archives/djgpp/1995/02/07/10:00:59

It seems that removing a few (one?) objects from the archive (and 
specifying them on the link command line as .o files) can solve the 
problem.  Or get the old ld v2.4 (from DJGPP 1.11m5).  Read the above 
message for details.

PS.  It is not enough to read ``all of the postings on this newsgroup'', 
because these expire after a few days.  As the FAQ describes (in section 
6.10), DJ Delorie has set up a searchable archive of the entire DJGPP 
mailing list/newsgroup traffic.  You should search there for the keywords 
which are pertinent to your problem, if you don't see it in the FAQ.